[linux-audio-dev] Re: Lionstracs.

[Kai Vehmanen]

On Tue, 20 Jan 2004, Doug Wellington wrote:

>> The big difference is that when the job is done, the result is
>> *really* yours to keep. You won't find yourself forced to move to a
>> new environment a few years later, just because someone decides it's
> 
> Heehee...  I know plenty of people still using "old" environments and
> technology!  Atari?  Amiga?  Moog?  Sequential?  Fender?  Vox?  How
[...]
> old thing...?  Heck, no technology is immune to the "obsolesence due
> to latest and greatest" syndrome.  Look at my Waldorf Microwave XT...

But with software it's not 100% the same situation.

I've succesfully run my mixing sessions (requiring Ecasound plus various  
LADSPA plugins) from machines ranging a Compaq iPaq (PDA, the old H3600
model) and a 486SX/25Mhz desktop, to the latest and greatest P4/Athlon
machines. 

I'm pretty confident that I will be able to run the audio sw setup I'm
using now on modern hw in the future, too. All it takes is to someone to
port Linux to the new hw, and keep the apps I use up-to-date. Both are
tasks that I can (in the worst-case) do myself, or pay someone to do.

Now as for the stuff I've recorded with Win95/98 audio apps, to access
them from a modern PC, I need to buy new license for W2000/XP, and
licenses for the W2000/XP compatible versions of the audio software I've
used. And if the companies go out of business, I might have to resort to
reverse-engineering their session-formats to get access to my old
recordings. This can be significantly more difficult (and costly if I pay
someone else to do it) than keeping my Linux audio setup running.

--
 http://www.eca.cx
 Audio software for Linux!